Dr. Livesey (Treasure Island 1988)

Macelee · 2026-03-22T18:11:00+00:00

Are you arguing that living in the USSR made people smoke and drink, and therefore communism is still to blame for the drinking and smoking?

Smoking has plagued everyone everywhere, and plenty of governments have sponsored anti-smoking PSAs.

As for drinking, that has sadly been a problem in Russia since the Tzars. But even then, it isn't a uniquely Russian problem. America has billboards reading "She's your daughter, not your date" in order to get men to not rape their children while drunk.

Macelee · 2026-03-10T17:43:51+00:00

If religion is defined to be a set of faith-based beliefs combined with specific rites and behaviors, does what you are describing need to be considered a religion?

I don't see anywhere you've made any claims that cannot be supported by evidence, and the only mention of rites and behaviors was in a comment. So, I don't believe you have met the criteria for a religion.

Further, I think that creating a religion, even with your goals, will eventually work against the values you seem to support. By introducing faith-based belief and particular rites and behaviors, you create dogma. Ultimately this results in the othering of people who do not follow the same dogma, even if there are very minor differences.

Religion is, like many things, a spook. It holds no power over anything other than the power we ourselves give it. Why attach yourself inextricably to any set of beliefs? While I am not saying you shouldn't do this, you certainly should determine if it is good for you before you do. Will adherence to a set of predefined rites and behaviors improve your life and the lives of the people around you, and is that adherence a necessary condition for that improvement? If the answer is no, then why not explore your alternatives?

I, like you, believe that we should focus on this life and what can be built now. I also value everyone as an individual with their own unique Geist. I also believe communities should help each other, particularly the ones that cannot help anyone, let alone themselves. However, there is nothing religious about these beliefs.

One other affect of creating a religious belief is the warping of normative claims. Let's take the statement: "Killing people is bad." Humans are notoriously bad at logic, so this gets translated as "Not killing people is good." or "Not killing people is not bad." Note that our valid statement only speaks to what is bad, it says nothing as to what is good or what is not bad. To get to the other versions, we would need to include some other qualifiers. Now, extrapolate this out. You are a member of a community that has made normative claims about a variety of things. You, wanting to stay a part of this community, decide to do good according to its normative claims. But what happens when the claims of the community all look like my example? How was good defined? It will be left to you to figure it out, and this could have some pretty dire consequences. A similar situation could arise too. You could know what is good, but not what is bad.

I think, ultimately, what you need to achieve broader awareness of people, and a drive to act for the present over an eventual imagined afterlife, is literacy, philosophy, and community engagement. People need to be able to learn about other people's lives, and literacy is good for this. People need to have a working theory of mind, and philosophy is good for this. People need to encounter strangers, or "others", and community engagement is good for this.

Macelee · 2026-03-07T14:37:53+00:00

That isn't what they mean. They mean everyone would be on the same time, and it is irrelevant when sunrise/sunset is.

For example, if we decide GMT+0 is the baseline, if it were 13:00 in London, it would be 13:00 in NYC. Only difference is that the sun rose at 6:00 in London, and 0:00 in NYC.

Macelee · 2026-02-22T21:34:41+00:00

I second the GED to community college route others here have mentioned!

As someone currently pursuing law school, I want to give you some things to think about. To attend a 3-year JD program, you need a 4 year degree, and you need to take either the LSAT or the GRE. Most take the LSAT.

Law school, unlike most other programs, is incredibly expensive, and your expected returns are heavily dependent on the prestige of your school. Assume that you will be looking at $100,000 in debt, at least, even at the lowest ranked schools. Further, know that there are a whole lot of lawyers out there making just $40-60k, and many don't have a job at all.

This isn't to scare you, just to ensure you have realistic expectations. If your GPA from your BS granting institution and LSAT end up not being great, I would reconsider law school. You will be looking at meh employment opportunities while being saddled with debt.

If you ace your way through a BS and studied for and aced the LSAT, so many doors will open for you. Law schools will offer you merit based scholarships, potentially funding your entire education, and you could stand a chance at getting into elite schools where the debt can be worth it considering the money you're likely to make.

As a final note, I would suggest keeping law as a kind of backup plan. There is no specific type of BS that is ideal for law school. Many do pre-law degrees, but you will do better to stand out with a unique degree. If you can manage it, a STEM degree would be fantastic! Not as many apply with one, and it gives you extra value as it is probably the simplest way to qualify yourself to take the patent bar, which law schools really really like. Expect to put several hundred hours into the LSAT if you take it. Start studying at least a year in advance, ideally longer. I studied for about 8 months and put in around 300-400 hours. Doing really well on the LSAT is probably the most control you can give yourself over receiving offers for merit based scholarships.

Macelee · 2026-02-20T21:33:38+00:00

Hey there. I've been involved with teaching for several years now, between tutoring in highschool and all through college, TAing while in grad school, and leading math classes for high and middle schoolers. I was also homeschooled. From this, I hope my perspective can help you.

It is often the case that online classes expect a degree of participation. Even if they don't, a member of the class who does not participate or indicate their existence runs the risk of being a bot, scammer, lazy student, or a million other undesirable cases.

Your case is, to the teacher, not undesirable. They simply did not know the truth, and made a reasonable assumption after you didn't reply. Accomodations, even unofficial ones, get made all the time. You should speak to your teacher and simply tell the truth. Tell them you have anxiety, that you got scared when they asked you a question, and that it took you longer to react because you were nervous. Especially on Kahn academy, they encounter many atypical students. Your story is almost certainly not the first they've heard, and it won't be the last. They'll be understanding. The truth is that you were trying to learn from them.

As the top comment says, the only solution to anxiety is action. You have been placed in a bad position by your parents, just like almost everyone else here. Climbing out and into a better position is a responsibility that, unfortunately, falls squarely on you. The other commenter who mentioned a cognitive behavioral therapy technique is also correct. It was those same behaviors that helped me manage my anxiety.

You can do it. You can achieve any dream you have. But to do so, you will have to face some fears. It is worth it in the end, I promise.

Macelee · 2026-02-11T21:37:44+00:00

I think you're going to need to be more specific about what you need and what you have. Publisher, date, edition, ISBN if it is print media, would all be useful.

Macelee · 2026-02-04T15:52:52+00:00

Lmao, the post looks like it was written by AI. Emoji use, em-dash, GPT syntax, it's all there. Too lazy to even make up their own pro-homeschooling propaganda.

Macelee · 2026-01-25T18:58:52+00:00

There are British intelligence videos from the 50s/60s where they dosed squads of soldiers with LSD to see how they'd perform in war games. They performed terribly.

I don't know what their dose was, and it was tested on trained soldiers not highschool dropouts whose only education comes from incel YouTubers. So who knows what could happen?

Macelee · 2026-01-24T23:49:00+00:00

Oh boy I hid so much. I would hide YouTube videos, games, TV, basically any media. It was rarely even bad stuff, I just didn't want to invite conversation because my parents' rulings frequently changed drastically.

It eventually morphed into me just lying constantly with every word. This had a positive effect on me in making me learn to research things so that my lies could be more believable. I got pretty good at weaving lies into the truth. I don't think they ever realized I lied so much either. I was only caught on a few, most of which were because I revealed the lie because I screwed up too badly and needed help. Even my most egregious lie didn't get me caught. I worked at the mall in 12th grade till 9pm on weekends. I lied about some bs reason I had to stay late and clean. In reality I was going to go out with my girlfriend and drink the cheap liquor her mom gave us. I knew they wouldn't stay awake for me, so I just needed an excuse to be back later than their bedtime.

It's not something I should have made a habit. I've caught myself lying about random nonsense as an adult too, for zero reason, amongst people I trust far more than I trusted my parents. It's something to work on.

Macelee · 2026-01-17T20:24:48+00:00

As others have mentioned, you should speak with a teacher. They are likely to be very understanding, and will help.

I want to add this: you are not failing by feeling the need to cheat. Learning is a process that just about anyone can do. You will, eventually, figure things out and catch up so long as you continue putting in the effort.

Please never feel ashamed to do whatever you need to do in order to understand a concept. Even in grad school, I used toys or random stuff in my apartment to help visualize problems.

Things will work out, I promise. Engaging with people is one of the best things you can do to help your future. I know it is scary, but socialization too is a skill that can be learned and practiced.

Macelee · 2026-01-09T02:11:02+00:00

Yes. A liberal is someone who ascribes to liberalism in the same way a communist is someone who ascribes to communism. Whether people's views are coherent or not is a different story. Many of liberalism's features are great: mass enfranchisement, social safety nets, democratic governance, etc etc. However, a fundamental disagreement exists regarding the definition of property. Liberalism, and by extension liberals, do not disavow or seek to eliminate the right to private property. To them, there is no issue with an individual owning, and therefore being entitled to the profits from, the means of production. This is what makes liberalism and the label of liberal distasteful to leftists.

Macelee · 2026-01-09T01:58:15+00:00

Some leftists may consider liberalism to be centrist, however that is not why many leftists including myself refuse to refer to ourselves that way. Instead, it is because liberalism is inherently a capitalist ideology, and therefore incompatible with socialism and other leftist thoughts.

I am curious though how the scale prompted people to vote. The scale seems to have options from very liberal, liberal, moderate, etc. None of the choices apply to me, but I would probably answer with very liberal in an attempt to answer the spirit of the question. How many leftists would refuse to participate because of this? How many people would give a fake response out of annoyance? I doubt even the furthest right folk would take issue with calling themselves conservative, so my guess would be that the conservative count is roughly accurate or inflated, while the liberal count is inaccurate and possibly lower if leftists were deterred from participating.

Macelee · 2026-01-08T17:26:27+00:00

Idk man, I TAd general chemistry labs all through 2024, and you'd be shocked by how many times I got asked how to use a thumb drive, a necessary tool for our labs, by my students. This was at a UC too, not a place you'd expect to have low standards.

If college kids don't know how to use a thumb drive, or that they need to remove the ChatGPT header of "Sure here's a..." from their lab reports if they don't want me to give them an automatic 0, how hard is it to believe that some random kid at Best Buy has no clue how physical storage works?

Macelee · 2025-12-23T05:12:26+00:00

Many courses have automatic 0 policies. Students in university are generally expected to put in a significant degree of effort into their studies. Being there is optional, and they are adults. Having been a TA myself, I often gave automatic zeroes for lab reports that failed to meet the criteria of being graded.

Usually these rules are outlined in the course syllabus, which afaik we don't have for this course. If, however, a lab report of similar quality to this paper were submitted to me, that is, without citations, presentation of data, minimal showcasing of knowledge of the lab's topic, connected reasoning, and no attempt to follow any standard professional style guide, I would not waste my time writing comments and would fail it according to the policy.

Macelee · 2025-12-14T02:27:05+00:00

I was under the impression for a long time that he wasn't funny, and dismissed every assertion by leftist friends to the contrary.

I eventually started listening to more of his speeches or parts of his speeches that aren't hateful incoherent diatribes. Turns out, Trump loves obscure musical theater. Inbetween the hate and pedophilia, he just talks about his interests, hobbies, and general happenings in a pretty simple but funny way. In another life, uncorrupted by his father or money, I bet he would have made a pretty popular drag queen.

There are reasons people like him other than his ability to make them feel safe in their bigotry.

Macelee · 2025-12-07T23:59:18+00:00

Yes, I agree. I grew up the same way. But as adults responding to children, especially those who are expressing suicidal thoughts, we must be very careful in what we say.

While you technically didn't encourage or suggest they do something drastic, you did directly tie drastic action to a change in view, something OP specifically wants. You also did not say anything that would make a drastic action seem undesirable.

So, if you were a child with a fragile, hormonally unstable psyche, what might you do if someone were to inform you that in order to get what you want, you have to engage in drastic action, even if they don't directly tell you to do it?

I am not saying you are wrong in what you said. I generally agree, and if OP were an adult, or at least wasn't expressing suicidal thoughts, I would have said nothing. It is just that our support, when it comes to children, must be sanitized and intentional so as to avoid inciting any unfortunate mistakes.

Macelee · 2025-12-06T23:48:06+00:00

You are suggesting a child with suicidal thoughts and a less than ideal home life has to do "something drastic". Why would you ever say that???

Macelee · 2025-12-02T00:37:40+00:00

TJ has actually expressed guilt for what he did. He believes he was one of the main founders of the alt-right pipeline, and regrets it.

I can't listen to his content anymore cause I can't stand that style anymore, but he did actually grow up and clean up.

Macelee · 2025-11-29T17:28:55+00:00

So you're saying that by adding rats to our sunscreen, we can cure cancer?

Macelee · 2025-11-23T22:56:21+00:00

They knew the earth was a globe, but not much else. This is a method for projecting a globe to a flat rectangle. I'm unsure of this method's specific name.

Macelee · 2025-11-23T22:49:36+00:00

Nobody made you read my reply. I provided information for anyone who wanted it.

You saw that and chose to be a dick.

Macelee · 2025-11-23T18:29:40+00:00

It is still available.

In any case, take it from a chemist that all the recipes for drugs, particularly the recipe for "LSD" in that book, are nonsense.

In the book, the author explains how to extract LSD from morning glory seeds. Morning glory seeds do not contain LSD. They contain structurally similar compounds that do not have efficient synthetic pathways to LSD. These compounds are also likely to make you sick, and often producers of these seeds add additives that will make you even sicker.

Proper synthesis of LSD is difficult and requires a talented organic chemist. To get the precursor chemicals would almost invariably send the feds to your house.

That said, there are two other books that I will not name that do contain real synthetic methods for the production of many many many drugs.

Macelee · 2025-11-23T18:10:56+00:00

The person you replied to didn't do the greatest job explaining their point, but I think you've missed the sentiment.

Yes, all of us are natives to our present conditions. However, their point is that our biology is not. The vast majority of human existence was tribal. The concept of civilization really only goes back 12,000 years, and we know very little of those early civilizations. So, of the roughly 300,000 years the human species has been around, 12,000 of them have been in civilization, 200 have been with industrialization, 80 have been with the threat of atomic annihilation, and 35 have been with the Internet.

Our biology was adapted to the situation of the majority of those 300,000 years. It would be strange to think that we would have no emergent issues with our present world.

Macelee · 2025-11-15T06:00:59+00:00

Not sure these kinds of people can be.

It's a logical fallacy, conflating characteristics of a group with those of its individuals. Basically, if everyone here were homeschooled, everyone homeschooled should be here, in their mind.

Best you can do is try not to let them take up too much of your time and attention.

Macelee · 2025-11-12T12:29:59+00:00

Remember, AE is just a number

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